Returning Home
by WritingFictionForFun
Summary: SPOILERS: After the events of the game ending, Ringabel returns to his own world to save his Edea and the friends who have now become strangers to him. He is once more Alternis Dim, Dark Knight to Templar Braev Lee, though he has shed his armour. Ringabel must now reconnect with his friends and find a way to convince Edea that she could one day love him.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Leaving the others behind was difficult. In fact, it was one of the most difficult things Ringabel ever had to do. Yet it was necessary if he wanted to save _her_. After returning through the portal taking him to his own world, to the very moment when Airy transformed into the hideous insect-like beast and attacked his friends aboard the Grandship, Ringabel donned his Dark Knight armour and gathered his courage to face down the enemy he failed to kill the first time.

To say Edea was shocked to see his face was an understatement.

For so long Ringabel—no… _Alternis_—had concealed his face to her, to the woman he'd loved since childhood, and it took losing both her and his memories to shed the black helmet.

Next came the hard part: defeating Airy.

With the four of them together, they managed to destroy the abomination, yet Ringabel then took part in helping his friends from the other world stop Ouroboros by aiding his strength to theirs by use of the Grandship. It was strange, seeing time reversed—and confusing, to say the least.

When everything was back to normal, Ringabel returned to his room, undressed to his usual attire, and threw himself onto his bed. The ceiling was thoroughly chipped, cobwebs in the corners, pipes visible to the world… but it felt like home, or one of his homes. He dearly missed his friends in the other world, wondering if his absence was greatly noticed, if Tiz and Agnes confessed their feelings yet, if Edea grieved his leaving… if they were all happy.

In this world, Ringabel hadn't travelled with them throughout the lands. He hadn't aided them in any cities or helped defeat any of the corrupted crystal monsters. Instead, as Alternis Dim, he deterred them at every step and became more trouble than good. That was perhaps Ringabel's deepest regret. In the other world he was a friend and hero. In this one he was just the latter, and only at the bitter end of everything.

Sighing, Ringabel retrieved his journal and began writing the day's events. Even now he couldn't put it down, couldn't skip an entry. Who knows? Perhaps it might come in handy again in the future.

_The dream I've often had finally came to its completion today. I returned to the place where Edea's blood was spilt and used my dark armour to help shield her in the battle that once stole her life away. We prevailed as a team and finally—__**finally**__—the guilt I've carried for so long fell from my shoulders like water._

_I saved her. I saved my Edea._


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Ringabel closed his journal just as a knock echoed upon the iron door. He glanced up in surprise, not expecting any visitors. Who would visit the Dark Knight, Alternis Dim, anyway? A mumbled thanks had been given the previous day, appreciation all around for his help in the battle against Airy and everything afterwards, but they didn't accept him as their friend. He'd done too much in the past in this world to deserve that title. Yet he craved it above all else; he wanted them to see him as nothing less.

"Who is it?" he called, rising from the bed.

"Uh, it's Edea," came her usually spirited voice, muted somewhat by the door.

He felt a jolt of surprise, then anxiety, for where the other Edea knew him well, this Edea knew only the Dark Knight.

"Come in," he said, clearing his throat a little.

The door creaked open and Edea entered, flaxen hair spilling across her shoulders, bright red ribbon tying back the loose locks, dressed in her usual homeland attire. Her face was somewhere between apprehension and gratitude—or was it bliss? Ringabel couldn't tell. But she looked guarded, and he didn't blame her. How else was she to react to the man who chased her around the world in order to stop her but then decided to aid her instead?

"Edea." Her name slipped off his tongue so easy, like feathers in a breeze, so effortless to catch on the wind. "How are you?" It was a ridiculous question, an excuse to begin an undoubtedly awkward conversation.

"I'm fine," she answered, shutting the door behind her. She held her hands at her waist, fingers intertwined, though her gaze was boldly upon his face and he found he had to flicker his eyes away, unable to contain the blush creeping up his neck. "I… uh… your face… it's been a long time since I've seen it."

"Yes…" Ringabel nodded solemnly. She didn't know how much he regretted not taking off that damn helmet before now, how much he wished he could and couldn't. It was a mask to him, a protection… yet he was quick to realize after travelling the world that he hadn't needed it as much as he thought he did. "I apologize for keeping myself from you."

The phrase caused another blush to spread up his face and he mentally swore. "I-I mean—that didn't come out right—"

Edea held up a hand and Ringabel silenced himself, surprised how her authority could control him so easily when it couldn't before. "I know what you meant, Alternis. I'm sure father will be pleased to see you've decided to unmask yourself, as well."

Of course… Templar Braev would be thrilled to see his Dark Knight coming into himself at last. The shadows of regret stretched deeper within Ringabel's mind.

Edea stepped across the room, nearing him, and Ringabel felt the need to shift away and wondered why. She stopped a few feet away, eyes scrutinizing him. "It's so weird. You'd think I'd remember your face a little, but I guess we were so young when you left to become a Dark Knight." She tilted her head to the side. "Are you always going to keep your armour off now?"

Would he? Ringabel nodded. "Yes, I plan on it—except in battle, but I suppose we won't be seeing any fighting on the horizon."

Edea shrugged. "Well, there's still training."

Ringabel blinked in surprise. "Truly, Edea? After all I've done?"

"Oh, _come on_, Alternis!" She crossed her arms and huffed out a sigh. "You swooped in at the last moment and proved yourself. Of _course_ we'll train again." Her voice then grew quiet, a bit of awkwardness filling her tone. "I mean… that's what I came down here to say: thank you. I don't think I said it when the others did. You really saved us. I'm not sure… I'm not sure we would have survived without you."

And didn't he know it.

He cleared his throat. "Think nothing of it. I came back to save you, after all."

"Came… back?"

_Damn it_. He didn't mean to slip that out.

"Alternis… what do you mean? Does this have something to do with those other worlds Airy mentioned? The worlds we helped protect?" Edea was looking at him intently now, brows drawn down, and Ringabel wasn't sure what to say. Looking so closely at her, he could see the woman lying on the Grandship's deck, her blood pooling around her still body, and the memory terrified him even now. "Alternis…?"

"I…" He breathed out a long sigh and glanced over his shoulder at the bed. He retrieved his journal and held it tightly between his fingers before glancing back to Edea. "Are you really sure you want to know?"

She leaned slightly back in surprise, and then her arms crossed. "If you're hiding something from me, I want to know it."

Stubborn as usual. It caused Ringabel to smile. He sat down on the bed and patted the place next to him. Edea only stared, that strange apprehensive look overtaking her face again. Perhaps she wasn't used to Alternis being so friendly. That made two of them.

"Well, sit down, Edea," he said lightly, a bit of his newfound personality slipping into his voice. "I won't bite."

Her mouth popped open a little at that and she wandered across the room as though in thought, sitting promptly down beside him. She shook her head a bit, her daze lifting, and held out a hand, palm up, for the book.

"Take note: most of this is just entries from when I chased the three of you across the world. The fun stuff begins much later…"

"Fun stuff? Here I thought your idea of fun was obeying father's orders and nothing else," retorted Edea. She took the journal and flipped towards the middle, skimming over a large portion of Ringabel's notes—thankfully. There were quite a few entries regarding her in there, and some she wouldn't find amusing.

She stopped somewhere near the back, her fingers running over the sketch of himself and her sitting at a coffee shop in Florem, teacups on the floral-patterned table outside the shop. "I don't remember… No… this never happened." She glanced quickly up at him. "Why are you drawing pictures of us in your creepy diary?"

Ringabel rolled his eyes and took the journal from her, snapping it shut. "Listen, before you get all worked up about nothing, remember that the girl in that picture _isn't_ you."

She recoiled in shock—or anger. He again couldn't tell. "What do you mean?" she asked quietly, dangerously. "She looks exactly like me."

"Yes, she is you, in a sense. She is the Edea of the world I was sucked into." Ringabel opened the journal again and Edea straightened, her eyebrows furrowed in both annoyance and confusion. "You may find this hard to believe, but… the first time you fought Airy, you were slaughtered at her hands."

"_What_!?"

"That's right. Airy killed the three of you and I was drawn into the beam of light." Ringabel stared intently at the picture he'd sketched the same night they'd all gone to that little shop. He'd fallen in love with that Edea over time, but he couldn't understand the allure at the time. She was beautiful—that much was certain—but it was something else, as well. When his memories returned, he knew exactly what drew him to her: the fact that she looked exactly like his own Edea, who'd been killed before his eyes.

"What you're saying—"

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth." Ringabel handed the book back to her. "After we destroyed Ouroboros in the other world, we were given the choice to return to our own worlds… and I chose to return to this one instead of remaining with my friends, because I needed to save you—all of you," he quickly added, though he didn't know why.

"So…" Edea took the book and flipped a few pages further, revealing more unfamiliar sketches, "there were other versions of ourselves. We weren't sure… not really. At least, we were _told_ about them but none of us saw them." She paused at the drawing of Alternis—another Alternis—kneeling on the deck of the Grandship with his helmet riven in half. "So many different stories… Is this you?"

Ringabel shook his head. "No, that's a different me."

"And the you without the armour… Why did you take it off?"

"I…" Ringabel was at a loss for words suddenly. His answer must seem so ridiculous to say aloud. "I lost my memories when I fell through the light. They returned after going through it time and again, but until then…" He swallowed, wincing as he remembered how he'd spoken to the other Edea. "Well, I was a bit of a fool, to be honest."

Edea raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I see." She flipped to the end of the journal, pages rustling, and stopped at an illustration of Ouroboros. "How awful," she murmured, and closed the book. "So you're the _real_ Alternis, the one who grew up with me, and in the other world you were… who?"

"Ringabel," he said weakly. He cleared his throat. "And the other Alternis, I'm afraid, saw me—or himself—before the end. He's still alive but I guess no one escaped unscarred from all of it."

"And… and the other Edea?" The girl beside him ran a hand along the cursive 'D' on the book's cover. "What was she like?"

"She was… She was like you in most ways—nearly identical, save perhaps her temper is wilder because of me."

"You?" Edea glanced up in surprise. "Good-natured, yet mostly silent Alternis? I don't believe you."

"Well, good-natured, yet mostly silent Alternis wasn't exactly himself in that other world," said Ringabel gloomily. "He was 'Ringabel' and 'Ringabel' wasn't silent in the least."

Edea giggled then, a soft, musical sound Ringabel had missed hearing. This Edea had hardly laughed before the quest began, and even less afterwards. He was glad to see her content once more.

"Do you miss them?" she asked next, quiet again.

"Of course I do." Ringabel regretted the look of subtle dejection upon Edea's face once he'd said it, but it was the truth. "I'd travelled with them from the beginning—from when you first arrived in Caldisla with Crowe. In this world…"

"You know us but we don't know you," supplied Edea softly, starting to understand it all now.

Ringabel grimly nodded. "Yes, exactly."

"Then why come back to this world?" Edea was looking at the picture of the two of them sitting at the coffee shop again, and her nose turned slightly pink. "Why come back when you seemed to have everything there?"

Ringabel was startled a bit by her question. He supposed he did have everything, perhaps even the other Edea's affections towards the end, but it wasn't _his_ Edea and it wasn't _his_ homeland. Despite everything he'd been through with Tiz, Agnes, and Edea… they weren't the people he'd followed around the world in pursuit and that world certainly didn't need _two_ Alternis Dim's wandering it.

Gently, Ringabel slid his hand under the book and folded it shut, laying his fingers across the cover. They lightly brushed Edea's and she refused to look up at him, her flush growing.

"I didn't belong in that world," he said softly, "and that world wasn't home to me. This one is, and I still had unfinished business with a certain evil fairy."

"To save us," said Edea quietly.

"Yes," confirmed Ringabel. He then took the journal and placed it on his table next to his dark armour, leaving it be. When he turned to look back at Edea, she'd already risen from the bed and was heading towards the door.

"I won't tell Tiz and Agnes," she said, stopping by the exit, fingers brushing the handle. "Your secret is safe with me… unless you want them to know."

"It's fine," said Ringabel with a shrug of his shoulders. "If you want to tell them, go ahead. I won't stop you."

Edea lifted a hand to her chest, fingers curled tight to her palm. "Maybe it can be our secret? I know how confusing this multiple worlds stuff is anyway," she added quickly.

"If you'd like." Ringabel approached her, hands in his pockets, heart beating nervously now for some reason. "I'm glad I was able to share this with you, if only to get it off my chest."

"Sure." Edea curled her bottom lip in and eyed the room as a distraction before looking back to him, a little surprise in her eyes once more. "You know… I might never get used to seeing you without that helmet. You just… you don't look…" She winced and clenched her jaw.

"I don't look hideous?" supplied Ringabel, grinning like a fox.

Edea laughed into the awkwardness. "Oh, you look far worse. My eyes burn from the ugliness!"

Ringabel smirked and crossed his arms, studying her guarded expression. "What a liar you are, Edea. But, out of curiosity, should I don my helmet once more?"

Her mouth opened to speak and then closed, lips twisting into a sneer. "Maybe you should, but I think it needs a good cleaning first. Let it air out a bit, but preferably away from the restaurant. We don't want your stench flooding the kitchen."

_Sharp as ever, my Edea_. He braced a hand to her left against the door, shutting the bit of distance she'd opened, and her face slackened in shock, cheeks flushed with either anger or discomfort at his closeness. He hoped for the latter. "I remember the other Edea once mentioned she liked my hair. I can only imagine what she thought of my face."

"Well, that wasn't _me_," argued Edea, voice clipped.

And then Ringabel suddenly remembered who she was—who _he_ was—and he slid his hand away from the door, stepped back, and inwardly winced. Alternis would never act this way around Braev's daughter; he would never disgrace himself in such a way.

Shouting proposals on the bridge of an airship, however… Yes, that was fine, apparently.

"Alternis…?" Edea sounded almost afraid to say his name, and he couldn't blame her after his curious-at-best behaviour. He must seem so strange to her, this newly reformed Dark Knight.

"Forgive me," he murmured, crossing his arms again. "It's been a confusing year for me. You should check on the others."

"O-okay." Edea paused, fingers curling slowly around the handle, and asked, "Are you sure you're all right, Alternis?"

"Yes," he lied, and then attempted a smile. "Go on. I'll be fine."

Edea nodded once, her gaze drifting to the floor, and then she left the room. Ringabel hung back his head and sighed; he ran his fingers through his hair and returned to his bed, collapsing upon it.

Sure, Ringabel was quite the idiot in the other world, but Alternis didn't seem to be faring any better in this one.


	3. Chapter 2

(**Note: So I researched a bit, and apparently Ringabel gave his notebook to the *real* Edea before leaving her world and coming back to his own, so he shouldn't have it in this one. Oops. Oh well.)**

Chapter 2

Edea Lee shut the door to Alternis's room and lingered there a moment, baffled by the Dark Knight's behaviour. He truly had changed on his strange adventure, and in more ways than one. It was almost disturbing.

She couldn't remember the last time she saw his face—a shameful thing to admit, in all honesty. Years ago, as children, he never wore the black helmet that would later consume his life. They often played together in her father's home, the loudmouth girl and timid boy. When he left for knight training, she had missed him, but her own duties occupied her time to the point where having room for anything else in her mind simply ceased to exist. Then he returned, changed from the boy she knew, and everything was different: a stickler for rules, firmer attitude, an undying love and appreciation for her father…

That last change had really upset Edea for a long time—and still did, if she was being completely honest with herself.

Now Alternis was different more once, back to his old self, perhaps, and for some reason that unnerved her. She was used to not knowing who was under the helmet, of feeling a certain sense of professionalism around him, but now he seemed very much a stranger to her—a different kind of mask, so to speak. Except this time his mask was his actual face.

It might even piss her off a little that he was handsome, though she'd never admit that to him. He seemed to have gained an ego boost in that other world.

_And there's another me out there…_ Edea climbed the stairs from the cabins to the deck of the Grandship, pondering over everything she'd learned from Alternis. He'd called himself "Ringabel" in that land. _What kind of name is "Ringabel", anyway? _She snorted into the dim light and stepped out onto the deck. _Still… it's weird that he was travelling with another me._

Thinking about other dimensions and different versions of herself caused Edea's head to pound. As if the reviving the crystals and facing the ugly, bug-eyed Airy wasn't confusing enough, they also had to save the other worlds and their copies moments afterwards. That information was probably best kept from her father—and the world in general.

"Edea!"

Tiz was waving to her from inside the restaurant and Edea jogged over to him. His sloppy white shirt hug just over his belt and his tan hair was in a mess from the strong winds. He smoothed it back as she neared and both stepped into the restaurant to join Agnes at a table. Two plates of fried fish and steamed vegetables lay on the table, and Edea turned up her nose as she slipped into a seat next to her friend.

"So… did you speak to Alternis?" asked Agnes conversationally, as she stabbed one carrot with her fork.

"I did." Edea called for a sundae with extra whipped cream and strawberries—and was given a bowl of ice cream with caramel sauce, because apparently "ships at sea for so long didn't have whipped cream or strawberries".

"And?" Agnes watched her friend carefully, and Edea felt a sigh coming up.

"And I thanked him for saving our hides, is all." She chose to keep the information about Alternis being in another world and hanging with other versions of them to herself. _It can be our secret_, she'd told Alternis. She had no idea why she'd wanted it that way, but feeling a headache coming on might've been the reason.

"Kind of weird, though, right?" asked Tiz, as he dug into his meal. He swallowed before speaking. "He just jumped in to save us when he'd been tracking us this whole time, planning to kill Agnes—and me if I got in the way."

Edea shrugged. "I guess." She licked the ice cream off her spoon. "But no weirder than anything else happening on our adventure—like Airy or saving the other worlds stuff."

Agnes grew silent and Edea lowered her spoon, pulling her brows into a frown. _Me and my big mouth_, she mentally scolded. "Agnes… I'm sorry. I forgot." Airy was Agnes's friend for a long time, but Edea hadn't trusted the stupid cryst fairy from the moment they first met. She of course never thought the irritating pixie would turn out to be that giant bug-thing or betray them, but everyone had their secrets.

"It's all right." Agnes pushed her plate away. Her shoulders sagged. "Airy had my full trust. She was my friend… and I allowed that to blind me. I was foolish for accepting her word as the truth and thoughtlessly following her without question."

"Hey now…" Tiz placed a hand upon Agnes's shoulder. "Don't be so hard on yourself. None of us saw it coming."

Agnes said nothing to his comforting words, but she slowly nodded, her eyes tired. Edea wanted to saw something, too, but she couldn't find the right words to ease her friend's mind. If there were a way to go back, to change things, Edea would take that path, but there sadly wasn't. They could only move forward from here on out, and hopefully Agnes would heal in time.

"We're almost to Eternia." It was Tiz who said this, breaking the silence first. "I could see the mountains when I was outside."

"The Grandship does move fast," commented Edea, and felt a pang of heartache for the first time during the trip home. They would all separate soon. Edea would return to Eternia City, while Tiz would continue his plan to restore Norende Village, and Agnes would probably go back to Harena and the Temple of Wind.

"We should make a promise," said Agnes, rising from her chair. Both Tiz and Edea raised their brows. "A pact, if you will, to visit each other often."

"I'm down for that," agreed Tiz.

_Of course you are_, thought Edea, grinning slyly. She nodded to Agnes. "Sign me up, too. We can all meet in Caldisla in… let's say three weeks?"

"Such a long time…" said Agnes quietly, hands drawing to her chest. But then she smiled and nodded back. "Of course. Three weeks. We all have responsibilities to take care of before then, and it will be nice to discuss what we've done over that period of time."

After the food was finished, they returned outside to stand by the ship's railing overlooking the sea. The wind whipped at Edea's hair, threatening to pluck her bow out. She leaned against the rail and gazed down at the serene blue and white-tinted waves, wondering what her future would hold. Agnes and Tiz both had plans, yet she wasn't sure where she stood back in Eternia. Perhaps she would aspire to rebuild her country, to put her father's ideals into play, become a captain of sorts… Who really knew? Endless possibilities awaited her, and she was a little afraid to face them.

Whatever the case, Eternia needed guidance after everything that had happened there. Alliances would have to be formed, bonds strengthened… and her father couldn't do everything on his own. She'd stand by his side, as she always had, and together they'd find a way to set things right.

Edea glanced across the ocean, saw land rolling up in the near distance, and counted the frozen peaks encircling her city, hiding it from view. In a few short hours, everything would change.


End file.
